Chapter Text
Just… breathe… in, out… it’s just one person this time…
Alice took a deep breath, staring at the doors of the restaurant… wondering exactly what part of her life led her to panic in front of a fancy schmancy pasta joint.
She went to open the door and nearly jumped out of her skin as a voice came from behind her.
“Alice?”
Alice whirled to face them, her face going pale as she recognized them…
“Vicky, hi…” She said, as she shrank into her coat.
“...you’re earlier than me… sorry, I got caught up in traffic…” Vicky sighed, shamefully placing her hands at her hips.
Alice’s chaotic nature pulled her to wear a nice, glittery, purple dress… then put a whole biker gang leather jacket over it. And basketball sneakers. Matching clothes wasn’t exactly her forte…
What made it even worse was that Vicky… didn’t even dress up. She wore the same unzipped fire print jacket and sweatpants as normal…
“Oh! No, no, it’s fine! You’re not late…” She looked down at her watch… in truth, they were both late. “...we’re both early!” She lied.
Vicky tilted her head, as if she had something to say, but… quickly retracted whatever she intended.
“...should we go inside, or…”
Alice nodded, realizing the awkward silence between them.
During the date, Clyde took it upon himself to sit around, tuned into the law enforcement line. A strange call called him to action, so here he was… all suited up, wearing a mask over his face to at least cover something.
He carefully strolled through the empty bank. Clyde took out his watch, sighing.
…police were called five minutes ago, the station's maybe thirty minutes away… I got time…
The air grew frigid. Clyde whirled around as chilling laughter echoed through the facility.
“ How interesting! The superhero has arrived to stop me! ”
Clyde groaned… he’d clearly grown tired of the mockery, and they’d only spoken once.
“...just… make this easier for both of us and step out.”
The sound of footsteps caught Clyde’s attention. Some stranger in a hoodie came from a back room. On their back, they had a backpack stuffed with money… and in their hand, an incredibly sharp shard of ice.
…oh, lord…
“...ice…” Clyde groaned. “...can you put the money back, at least?”
“Oh, this?” They laughed, looking at Clyde. “...no. Noope… you can come and get it, if you like!”
In that very moment, Clyde went to hit them or grab them or something, but… the floor became slippery. Ice spread across the floor in a flash. Clyde took barely a second to process it… so he took his staff and buried it into the ice, to keep himself upright.
“I’m a bit busy,” The person said, somehow perfectly ice skating around the grounded Clyde. “...we can scuffle another ti-” They yelped as Clyde swung his staff into their legs, sending them straight to the floor.
Clyde snatched the bag as they fell, then tried to escape, ultimately flopping back onto his face. The bag slid away from the both of them…
“Agh! You little…” The person growled as they tried to crawl towards the bag. Clyde grabbed their ankle and swung them back, wincing as they slammed against the counter. As he carefully secured the bag, an icicle buried itself into Clyde’s leg.
“Hahah! Sorry, speedy fella!” The person yanked the bag away, as well as the icicle, and kicked Clyde away. “It’s been a quiet few months, but you can’t play superhero without a villain!”
Clyde hissed, holding the actual hole in his leg.
“...wh-what…?”
“Somebody has to disturb the peace… buh-bye!” They got up and skated to the entrance, then ran away.
Clyde dragged himself across the icy floor, to a seat… then pulled out his walkie.
Alice yawned as her walkie rang out.
“...urgh… come on, man…” She reached for her glasses and flicked the light on. The wine clearly took some kind of toll on her, as she stumbled to her jacket and answered the call.
“...agh, hell…” She let out a huff. “...hello?”
“...Alice…” Clyde’s strained voice came from the other end… which very much snapped Alice into reality. From Alice’s bed, Vicky leaned up.
“H-huh…? What’s going on?” She groaned.
“C-Clyde…! What happened?!” Alice said, tightly grasping the walkie.
“...fucking… ow.” Clyde groaned, “...we have a big problem…”
“Where are you, what’s going on…?”
Clyde didn’t answer for a second.
“...another person… from the island. We need to talk… A-S-A-P…”
“O-okay! Uhh… g-gimme a sec to get to the lab, I guess…” Alice turned the walkie off and turned to Vicky. “...I… guess I’m heading out…”
“Oh my god , what the shit happened to you?!” Alice cried, as she saw Clyde bandaging his leg. He sat at Alice’s desk, propping up the injured leg so he could properly bandage it.
“...I got stabbed. By a fucking icicle. ” Clyde replied, monotonously.
“I-is that even possible?!” Alice cried, nervously running her hands through her hair.
“Yes… but it’s not even the season for snow, or ice…” Clyde shrugged. “...I think we’re not the only ones wrapped in Vincent’s freakshow…”
“What? Come on, man… it would’ve been so cool for us to be the only ones with-”
“Everyone on the island… was affected.” Clyde interrupted. “...I recognized her, she was on the island…”
Alice blinked, clearly confused. Her head still had a fair bit of fuzz, the wine hadn’t worn off yet.
“...which one was that, then…?”
“I forget her name, but…” Clyde paused, to stare at Alice. “...are you alright?”
“...sure, sure, I’m fine!” She replied, trying to find something to say in her (currently inebriated) mind. “...urgh…”
“...oh. Yeah, how’d the, uhh… date go?”
Alice lowered her tone to a whisper.
“...I think it was a trainwrec-”
“You encountered Crystal Ryolas…” Vicky interrupted, from across the room. She stared at pictures taken by surveillance cameras. “...I knew she’d be back…”
“...Crystal who ?” Alice asked.
“...I was certain it was Crystal Parks …” Clyde mumbled. “...what happened to her last name?”
“Some people use fake names to get away with stuff, we all witnessed that with “Freddy Ferguson”, on the island…” Vicky said, letting out a sigh.
“Are we going to discuss why she needed all that money?” Clyde asked, casually cleaning the wound while the others watched.
Alice blinked, holding back the urge to retch.
“...maybe she, uhh… I got nothing…”
“She’s a decommissioned cop, wanting revenge on Vincent… because his twisted-ass clone tried to assault her. She was on the island and went missing…” Vicky paused, tapping the pen she held to her lips. “...but why the hell would she rob a bank…?”
“She did, uhh…” Clyde let out a sigh, “...say that we “couldn’t play superheroes without a villain,” so…”
“...wait, so is she just doing this shit for brownie points…?” Alice said, holding back a laugh.
“Let’s hope she’s the only one who has powers…” Vicky mumbled, clearly unaware of the power of foreshadowing.
With that, they finished patching Clyde up and went home…
Alice jolted awake again, to her phone vibrating and making a highly obnoxious beep.
“...urgh, the hell is it this t-” She gasped, even letting a yelp escape. “Oh, no no no, not now!”
She dropped her phone and scurried to get her coat on. Vicky groggily glanced over at Alice’s phone…
“...there’s an intruder in your lab…” She mumbled, though Alice was already fully aware of this.
“Tell Clyde, I gotta go!” Alice cried, snatching up her walkie and leaving her phone behind.